ForestEthics takes a seat on the couch with Dole VP Sylvain Cuperlier

December 20, 2011

Dole posted a Public Relations video on Youtube last week after hundreds of ForestEthics supporters returned to the Dole Facebook page (their last visit was in August) to share news of Chiquita's recent commitment to avoid fuel from refineries using Canada's Tar Sands¹. Our supporters were feeling inspired by the Chiquita news, and so it was natural that they would use it to try and inspire Dole to take similar action.

And Dole certainly needs more inspiration. The video the company put on Youtube (below) last week featuring Vice President of Worldwide Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability, Sylvain Cuperlier, merely repeats the same misleading lines they used in August.

Here's Cuperlier:

" [...] Some time ago, when we first heard the allegations from ForestEthics, we contacted all of our fuel suppliers worldwide, to inquire about the source of their fuel. They assured us that they do not use Tar Sands fuel. We've continued to monitor the situation since then, and have found absolutely no evidence to suggest that Tar Sands fuel is included in the fuel they provide Dole. We continue to request that ForestEthics share any information it has so that we can deal directly with our suppliers, if necessary, to ensure that Dole upholds its commitments to the environment..."

Contrary to what he suggests here, ForestEthics did share the following detailed information with Cuperlier himself in September. As Mother Jones reported last week,  and we told Dole in September, “unless you take action to take tar sands oil out of your footprint, you've got it in your footprint." As in, if you are a company that distributes products throughout the United States, there are certain states-- Ohio, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Montana, Minnesota, and Iowa--where all the fuel on the market comes from refineries using Tar Sands.  (We're pretty sure you can find Dole products in each of those states.)

We've worked with enough companies on this issue to know that a business as large as Dole is filthy with Tar Sands unless, like Chiquita, they are actively working to get it out of their footprint. ForestEthics has repeatedly asked Dole to disclose the refinery sources of origin for the fuel they use, but they haven't. And we know from a decade of experience that, when companies like Dole ignore requests for relevant information, they generally don't want that information to be known.

We've begun to wonder what Dole is hiding. Between the Forbes article and this video from Mr. Cuperlier, they've now twice given an answer that we know to be false. Because we know that Dole is currently not avoiding the Tar Sands. It is merely ignoring a growing problem of its own making.